| Dear
Matt,
I am loving reliving my Far Rockaway memories on your
site. Here are a few things I remember: Spartan day camp was on the beach
near Wave Crest. I recall that it was owned by the family of Bernie Sparr.
He was a science or social studies teacher and my 9th grade home room
teacher at Cardozo and a really nice man. The Goody family did live in
Bayswater. I played basketball with son Bob at the night center at FRHS.
I was told that the area at beach 9th, Empire Ave, and Reads Lane was
a 9 hole golf course before homes were built there and that before that
it was a vacation estate for Diamond Jim Brady and Lillian Russell. A
lot of us played touch football in an old day camp back there also. I
was also told stories by old timers of U.S. Marines patrolling our beaches
during WWII because there were sightings of German U Boats right off shore
and fears of spys being dropped off.
No one makes mention of the great bumper car ride at
the end of the 35th St amusement area on the boardwalk. After that ride
I think there was an archery operation. Everyone remembers Ginos but we
also had Tower of Pizza at the other end of the block. Freddy the owner
had great pizza also. There was an abandoned mansion on the beach at 8th
St and a lot of us snorkeled and swam on that property. It was like having
a private beach. I remember in the late 1950's when my family moved to
Empire Ave from Brooklyn going down to the beach and fishing from an aging
wooden pier just below wave crest. I love the memories of walking the
bungalow streets on summer nights. The streets were teeming with kids
and many of the old wooden hotels had bands playing music on their front
porches.
I felt that I lived in a very special place. Yes there
was 3 movie theaters in town. The Pix played movies in double features
after the movies had their initial run. The Strand had the PAL gym upstairs,
the basketball coach was named Smitty. The top side of the 3rd theater,
Columbia?? had a faded white painted sign on the side of the brick building
advertising an old vaudeville entertainment company.
Your work is greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
Jeff Belluck (FRHS Class of 1963)
Matt Bashie's reply dated May 30, 2010:
Hello Jeff --
Thank you for taking the time to write to me!
I am so glad you are happy with the website -- but alas, it is not mine!
The website is managed by Marty Nislick and I am only one of many contributors.
I enjoyed reading about your memories.
I remember the Spartan Day Camp and I too knew Bernie Spar -- a science
teacher at JHS 198. Of course I had heard of the Goody Family living in
Bayswater but I never met any of them. I think the Weterson Family (Wetsons)
lived in Bayswater as well -- but I never met any of them either. I was
not aware that Jim Brady and Lillian Russell ever lived in the Rockaways
so that is news to me!
I have heard from several people about the quartering of soldiers on the
Rockaway Beaches during the second world war but again, that information
is all second-hand.
I seem to remember those bumper cars that you mention as being at the
west side (end) of the Beach 35th Street Boardwalk amusement area -- although
I doubt I ever partook of that type of amusement. I don't remember the
archery range at all -- perhaps a miniature golf course in that general
vicinity -- maybe, maybe not.
As to pizza, I never ate at Ginos. A few time in my youth, I bought a
slice of pizza from a small shop directly south (right next door) to the
W. T. Grant Department Store -- it was also a Donut Shop. As a college
student, my friends and I would ONLY order pizza (take-out) from Tower
of Pizza -- and I always considered that "Tower" pizza to be
the very best -- strictly a matter of taste.
I remember several abandoned mansions on the beach in the "early
numbers" but I don't remember any of them too distinctly. I was aware
that there was a "small village" down at the eastern end of
Seagirt (south side) but I only drove through there once or twice in my
late teens. I suppose that this is the very area which is now overtaken
by the Roy Ruther apartment complex. I could be incorrect about this.
I also don't remember an old wooden fishing pier off the Wavecrest areas
-- my dad and his friends used to fish right from the shore line at Roche's
Beach -- there was an area "set aside" strictly for fishing.
I also remember those bands playing loud music on the outside porches
of those many old hotels in the Rockaways back in the late 1950s, early
1060s. To me, that was just another indication that summer was officially
underway. I remember that oh so clearly!
Of course I visited all three movie theaters in the village -- The Pix
was on Mott Avenue and originally it had been called "Gem" but
people laughed and unofficially renamed it "Germ" so they changed
the name to "Pix" sometime about 1953. I remember the PAL which
was located over the Strand Theatre and of course on the side of the R.K.O.
Columbia, it read: "B. F. Keith Vaudeville House" -- strictly
a forgotten landmark.
Again, thanks for sharing your thoughts and remembrances with me. Please
keep in touch!
Matthew Bashie
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